Thursday, August 25, 2011

I unfortunately had to miss the second day of Bill Perkins plein air workshop but had a good time on day three. We traveled about 20 minutes up Provo Canyon to Deer Creek State Park and found places to paint along the edge of the water. I wanted to try something different and chose a composition where the water came right to the bottom of my picture. I was literally right on the water's edge. Whenever a boat went by the lapping waves would splash on me a little bit.

My view at the edge of the water

This one turned out better than I originally feared but not as well as I had hoped going in. I guess that's the nature of outdoor painting. Sometimes all the elements converge and you get something great and other times things sort of fall apart before your eyes. One thing I am learning (the hard way at times) is to not "chase the light". That means not constantly changing shapes and shadow patterns as the light shifts. I spent so long on this one, that the light on the trees shifted from near shadow to side light, but I tried to refrain from adjusting things. The texture of the trees was also a challenge I don't think I lived up to. I just need to get faster at putting down my impressions I guess. Anyway, After this one, I had one more shot before I had to call it a day. I'll post that one next time.

The Story So Far

I have been making art for as long as I can remember. These days I work in acrylic paint or Photoshop when creating illustrations for magazines, children's book publishers and advertising clients. I have even been given some cool awards for it. Lately, I am loving oil painting out of doors and for galleries.

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